Halimah Yacob
Halimah binte Yacob (born 23 August 1954) is a Malay politician from Singapore. A member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), she is currently the eighth President of Singapore from 1 September 2017, and former Speaker of Parliament, from 14 January 2013 to 11 August 2017. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Jurong GRC from 2001 to 2015, and later on moved to Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC from 2015 to 2017. She attained presidency on 11 September 2017, disqualifying 5 of the candidates and backdating it to 1 September 2017. Education Halimah Yacob was educated at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and Tanjong Katong Girls' School, before going on to the University of Singapore where she completed an LLB (Hons) degree in 1978. She was called to the Singapore Bar in 1981. In 2001, she completed an LLM degree at the National University of Singapore, and was conferred Honorary Doctor of Law on 7 July 2016. Career Political career Halimah entered politics in 2001 when she was elected as an MP for the Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC). Following the 2011 general election, Halimah was made a Minister of State at the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Following a cabinet reshuffle in November 2012, she became a Minister of State at Ministry of Social, Family and Fertility. She also served as a chair of Jurong Town Council. Halimah has also served as the Chair of the Jurong Town Council. Halimah has been actively involved in the Malay community. For example, she contributes to the Malay Knowledge-Based Economy Advisory Committee, which was formed to better integrate the Malay community into the knowledge-based economy. In recognition of her contributions, she was conferred the Berita Harian/McDonalds Achiever of the Year Award in 2001 and the "Her World Woman of the Year Award" in 2003. Speaker of Parliament On 8 January 2013, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong nominated Halimah Yacob to succeed former Speaker Michael Palmer. She was fully supported by all the MPs of the ruling People's Action Party. She was elected Speaker of Parliament on 14 January 2013. Halimah Yacob is the third consecutive Speaker belonging to the minority race, which includes Abdullah Tarmugi and Michael Palmer. Presidential candidate On 11 August 2017, Halimah has stepped down from the Speaker of Parliament and MP for Marsiling-Yew Tee to run for the presidency in 2017 presidential election, after Tony Tan and Tan Cheng Bock announced that they are not going to run, as they are too old. She is viewed as the candidate for the presidential election, which is endorsed by Lee Hsien Loong. Trade union involvement Halimah has served at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) as the Deputy Secretary General, Director of the Legal Services Department and Director of the Women's Development Secretariat. She has also served as the Executive Secretary of the United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries. Halimah has also served on the governing body of the Geneva-based International Labour Organization. She was elected as the Workers' Vice-Chairperson of the Standards Committee of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and 2005. In 2003 and 2004, she was the Workers' Spokesperson for the ILC Committee on Human Resources Development and Training. Personal life Halimah is married to Mohammad Abdullah Alhamshee, a businessman of Arab-Indian desceent and has a five children. She lives in a public HDB flat at Yishun from 1980s to 2017, consisting of one 5-room flat and one 4-room flat joined together by demolishing the median wall, and if elected, she will be moving to Merawoods, which is former Alex Chiau's house from 2015 to 2017. She had moved to Merawoods on 3 September 2017, which is safer. Her house had employed several police officers since July 2012. However, some Singaporeans had known that once she stay in a HDB flat at Yishun (Block 663), the HDB have installed the awning tents and two carpark lots are painted red and reserved for police cars. Peak hour commuters will see their presidential motorcade for going back home. More police officers were at the scene in the vicinity. The Ministry of Home Affairs had however, shot that suggestion down. This has prove that, Halimah Yacob's house will become the next house-hunters for the Tampines Court en-bloc sale, where Uncle Willie had however moved out before the en-bloc. References External links *Official Website Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:Members of the Parliament of Singapore Category:National University of Singapore alumni Category:People's Action Party politicians Category:Singaporean women in politics Category:Speakers of the Parliament of Singapore